British Open: Is the championship over after only 36 holes?

Is the Open Championship over after only 36 holes?

No, but if Brian Harman doesn't take home the Claret Jug, it will mean he coughed up the largest 36-hole lead any player has had in the 13 times the Open has been played at Royal Liverpool.

At 10-under, Harman has run away from the entire field. Only Tommy Fleetwood is within five shots of Harman, who has played virtually mistake-free golf over the course of the first two rounds.

No player had ever held more than a four-stroke lead heading into the weekend at Royal Liverpool. Harman is now set up for an epic victory or an epic fall.

How will it play out? Here are the factors that will determine who becomes the 2023 Champion Golf of the Year:

Weather

The forecast in Hoylake, England, calls for steady rain and wind throughout the weekend. The conditions will not be ideal for low scoring, but they also aren't looking like they will favor teeing off early vs. late. If someone is going to catch Harman, they'll have to do it battling the same wind and rain.

Harman's drought

Harman has two career PGA victories, but none since 2017. That's a dry spell that will undoubtedly enter his mind if he's still in contention on Sunday. He has a pair of top 10 finishes at majors, including a T6 finish at last year's Open. But he also has a bunch of missed cuts, including a pair at the Masters and PGA Championship earlier this year.

"I think about it a lot, obviously," he said of his winless streak. "I'm around the lead a bunch. It's been hard to stay patient. I don't know why it hasn't happened, but I'm not going to quit. I'm going to stick with it and just keep after it, and hopefully it'll pop one day."

Who else is in contention?

Tommy Fleetwood (5 shots back): The Englishman has done just about everything at the four majors but win one of them. He's finished second twice and was fourth at last year's Open. He's got the game to win, but like Harman, will have the demons of coming up short in the past swirling through his head.

Sepp Straka (6 shots back): The Austrian (via Athens, Georgia) has two career PGA Tour victories, one of which came a week ago. So he's playing solid golf. The 30-year-old is still relatively new to major golf, with just nine previous appearances to his name.

Jason Day (7 strokes back): The former world No. 1 has been playing solid golf for the first time in awhile ... outside of the majors. Day has a victory and a handful of top 10s this season, but he also missed the cut at the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open. He hasn't finished in the top 10 at a major since 2020 and is seemingly a lifetime away from his victory at the 2015 PGA Championship.

World Nos. 1-3: Of the top three players in the world — Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm — only McIlroy is under par ... at 1-under. Many of McIlroy's best finishes at majors since his last victory way back in 2014 have come through the back door, when the pressure has been off and going low was the only option.

Scheffler (3-over) made the cut on the number, while Rahm is only one stroke better at 2-over.

The 17th and 18th holes

It measures around only 130 yards, but the short par-3 17th is a monster. Friday, Mathew Fitzpatrick arrived there at 1-under, a stroke behind playing partner Jason Day. Day put his tee shot on the green, while Fitzpatrick found a pot bunker and a terrible lie. When they left, Day was 3-under, Fitzpatrick 2-over. That's the kind of swing that can happen at 17.

And it's not done there.

The finishing hole can be just as polarizing. Harman used an eagle at 18 to move to 10-under, while Taichi Kho carded a 10 there on Thursday.

Get through 17 and 18 unscathed, win the championship. Go 5-over (as Phil Mickelson did Thursday) and miss the cut.